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Ok. First let me b clear this is my first experience with this game and this enquiry is about folks who would be interested and ONE individual (not me!) who would take on running it.

I know of at least 4 folks who r presently interested:

Myself
My brother
THeCounselor
His friend ......

So, anyone else? Especially someone familiar with the game to run and nurture we newbies along:). (as a side note about the new iPhone/iPad versions coming out. There is no on-line play for this version unfortunately).

I'm surprised that there's been zero response to Prederick's kind offer to commish a league for interested GWJ'er's. We had a solid 6+ earlier. Perhaps people have already committed to other leagues. My brother and I are 'ready' to go, but I would much prefer to do it with GWJ'ers. Any interest's to move forward on this folks?

I'm sorry, but I'm also interested in the league. I've hesitated because I'm such a bad OOTP player and even though I've owned v9, 11 and now 12, I still consider myself a noob. But I'm thinking playing with other people might keep me more engaged.

Are we thinking of a fictional league? I prefer fictional to real MLB to historic (in that order) and I assume with full financial bells and whistles turned on?

Are we thinking of a fictional league? I prefer fictional to real MLB to historic (in that order) and I assume with full financial bells and whistles turned on?

I'm pro-fictional league too, things are a bit more fun (to me) in a sim game like this without the hulking monstrosities of the Yankees and Red Sox already built in (and I say that as a Yankees fan).

Also, as Novocain noted, there's a TON of bells and whistles to look at RE: the game's financial system. I have a ton of silly ideas (I'd totally have us playing in a North American Baseball League with teams from Canada and Mexico in the mix), but there's issues of potential salary caps, income sharing, media contracts, and et cetera. Do we want to put our heads together and think about this? Do we want to use someone else's template? Or do we want to leave it up to the commish (in this case, me)?

Fictional all the way. Well, fictional players, don't care about team names. The real players bring baggage with them though. You expect certain things from certain players and sometimes they're not rated the way you'd want them to be. Plus you won't have outrageous contracts built in, thankfully.

I personally don't care about the financials and whatnot. You set it up, I'll play along.

What I'm wondering is are we going to sim a bunch of seasons before starting in order to have history and records, or are we starting fresh. I'm use to starting fresh, but it could be interesting to come in with that history. Maybe I'll setup a league tonight when I get home and let it sim for a hundred years and see how the stats turn out. Anyway, that's just a minor issue, really. More of a curiosity.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

I'd be the first to admit that I am terribly overwhelmed by the financial bells n whistles. When I first started playing OOTP, I started with the financial system turned off (yeah yeah..,) and focused purely on the talent/stats evaluation aspect of the game, then after a few seasons, I slowly introduced more and more of the financial aspects. It was a transition for me to realize that having $ value attached to a player and his talent and service is important.

Maybe we can do something similar to that effect? Start out with some of the more basic financial stuff and we can slowly add more as the league progresses or needs? I think we can also dictate some of the terms (years before free agency, options, etc.) in order to simplify the MLB setting.

Maybe we can do something similar to that effect? Start out with some of the more basic financial stuff and we can slowly add more as the league progresses or needs? I think we can also dictate some of the terms (years before free agency, options, etc.) in order to simplify the MLB setting.

I think adding in features as we go along would be incredibly confusing. I think it just comes down to allowing the AI to do certain things for you. They may not do a perfect job, or even a good one sometimes, but it's probably better than making huge mistakes if you have to control more than you think you can handle.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

Well being new, I'll go along with what Prederick and you folks decide on. Just be forewarned there might be some hand helding needed

I was reading some more things on the 'AllSimBaseball' site and it looks like within there set-up we can create a forum to discuss stuff. Or am I not reading it right.

Anyway, when things start to go, what do you need Prederick to 'connect us' to you as Commish? Email addresses or something created on our end in game? Any prep instructions etc. would be most appreciated.

additional note: Seeing how we are thru half the MLB season, I wouldn't mind trying to get this started asap, ya know next week or two or sooner. My Bro' is sorta bitin' at the bit to get the experience of an on-line league (he was close to doing a fantasy league, but after I got him to buy OOTP and play it a bit, seem's much more fun and envolved then any kind of fantasy league). But again, it's what we all agree on and Predericks schedule. I can tranq him if need be, lol.

How do fictional leagues work. The game produces random names and potentials and you work with that? Can you edit in your own names? Will there be these 'feeder leagues' [i]I see mentioned? In other words, what's the what?:) (told ya I'm new!)

How do fictional leagues work. The game produces random names and potentials and you work with that?

Yes.

Can you edit in your own names?

Yes, but I'm not sure how it works logistically so the name change is recognized throughout the league.

Will there be these 'feeder leagues'

feeder leagues refer to anything below the highest level (eg. AAA, AA, Mexican League, etc.) that we are free to take players from. This falls under 'league structure' in OOTP and the game is very flexible in its setup. We can decide if we want the top-league-with-affiliated-teams-in-the-lower-league structure (similar to MLB) or we can try a non-affiliated feeder league approach. We can also decided if we want to have managerial/GM control over our feeder league affiliated teams, or leave all that to the AI.

How do fictional leagues work. The game produces random names and potentials and you work with that?

Yes.

Can you edit in your own names?

Yes, but I'm not sure how it works logistically so the name change is recognized throughout the league.

Will there be these 'feeder leagues'

feeder leagues refer to anything below the highest level (eg. AAA, AA, Mexican League, etc.) that we are free to take players from. This falls under 'league structure' in OOTP and the game is very flexible in its setup. We can decide if we want the top-league-with-affiliated-teams-in-the-lower-league structure (similar to MLB) or we can try a non-affiliated feeder league approach. We can also decided if we want to have managerial/GM control over our feeder league affiliated teams, or leave all that to the AI.

What I'm wondering is are we going to sim a bunch of seasons before starting in order to have history and records, or are we starting fresh. I'm use to starting fresh, but it could be interesting to come in with that history. Maybe I'll setup a league tonight when I get home and let it sim for a hundred years and see how the stats turn out. Anyway, that's just a minor issue, really. More of a curiosity.

I do that a lot, just to get some history under the league's belt. My fear is that the game keeps track of all that kind of stuff, and if we do it, that's material that'll need to get uploaded to the website. I have a 40-year old league going right now that's 2 gigs, chugging towards three.

Financials aren't THAT much work though, and i'll do some work on my end to try and see what works and what doesn't. The only financials we really need to worry about are whether or not we want a salary cap/luxury tax/revenue sharing, and what era in baseball history we want to reflect (1910? 1955? 1985? Modern-day?).

Donan wrote:

Anyway, when things start to go, what do you need Prederick to 'connect us' to you as Commish? Email addresses or something created on our end in game?

Just e-mail if my memory serves. In the last league I played in, everybody e-mailed their weekly team changes to the commish, and he uploaded them to the server. Commish runs a week, then everyone grabs the most recent league file, and so on.

Donan wrote:

How do fictional leagues work. The game produces random names and potentials and you work with that? Can you edit in your own names? Will there be these 'feeder leagues' [i]I see mentioned? In other words, what's the what?:) (told ya I'm new!)

In order, yes, yes, and yes (feeder leagues being Single-A through AAA, although if we want to make the Mexican league a feeder league i'm okay with that too).

I've gotta run to work, but since everyone here's very flexible, i'll come up with a workable starter tonight, and then we can haggle out more from there.

feeder leagues refer to anything below the highest level (eg. AAA, AA, Mexican League, etc.) that we are free to take players from. This falls under 'league structure' in OOTP and the game is very flexible in its setup. We can decide if we want the top-league-with-affiliated-teams-in-the-lower-league structure (similar to MLB) or we can try a non-affiliated feeder league approach. We can also decided if we want to have managerial/GM control over our feeder league affiliated teams, or leave all that to the AI.

I want the ability to control my minor league team(s). I still believe you can give the AI control in-game (which may be what you are saying). I just want the choice, ya know?

Prederick wrote:

I do that a lot, just to get some history under the league's belt. My fear is that the game keeps track of all that kind of stuff, and if we do it, that's material that'll need to get uploaded to the website. I have a 40-year old league going right now that's 2 gigs, chugging towards three.

I believe that compresses quite a bit when uploading, so while it's 2 gigs on your computer (wow) it's much smaller on the server, thankfully.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

feeder leagues refer to anything below the highest level (eg. AAA, AA, Mexican League, etc.) that we are free to take players from. This falls under 'league structure' in OOTP and the game is very flexible in its setup. We can decide if we want the top-league-with-affiliated-teams-in-the-lower-league structure (similar to MLB) or we can try a non-affiliated feeder league approach. We can also decided if we want to have managerial/GM control over our feeder league affiliated teams, or leave all that to the AI.

I want the ability to control my minor league team(s). I still believe you can give the AI control in-game (which may be what you are saying). I just want the choice, ya know?

No problem. I have no strong feelings about any of the league structure, and I'll entertain anything.
Personally I found it a bit overwhelming when I had to keep track of 25+ players on each team over 2 or 3 levels when I can barely keep my top league 40-man roster straight.

Minor league options, waiver clearing, 25- & 40-man rosters, September call-up, Rule 5 draft, they can all be in the game, and they cause me a lot of headache

Alright, if i'm gonna be the GWJ League Commish, I think there are two rules I want the league to go by.

1.) THIS IS FOR FUN. As opposed to the more "tactile" sense of rage losing a game of Madden gives, i'm going to be simming at least a week at a time of this. This should be for good banter, light-hearted joking, and fun.

2.) I do not mean this to be mean, but i'd personally feel more comfortable if we primarily took in tenured GWJers (those who are at least Intern status), or people who others can directly vouch for. Like I said, I don't mean to be cruel, but I don't want any flakes or Lord Douchelington III applying to join and ruining what, as I said, should be a good, fun thing. I ran the first GWJ gift-exchange, so my tolerance for shenanigans is low.

Aaaaanyway, when I got home this evening, I sat down and made us a brand-new spankin' league. Here are all the relevants:

Name: North American Baseball League (NABL)
Structure: Two Leagues with two divisions of seven teams. The leagues are the Eastern League (roughly from the Mississippi east) and the Western League (from the Mississippi west). Each league has a Northern and Southern Division.

Yes, there are some baseball havens missing, but we've got plenty of room for expansion (user controlled or not). I'm not going to mention team nicknames, as I figure, when we start, if you wanna change the team's nickname, fine by me.

FINANCIALS: Set to Modern-Day (2011) standards.
Team Revenue: National Media Contract is FIXED. What that means, is that rather than certain markets hogging the contracts (although OOTP is a bit dynamic), it's like the NFL. Every team gets the same cut. That cut is $25,000,000.
-Revenue Sharing: Set at 20% of team income.
-Cash Maximum: Set at $20,000,000

(With this model, the average team profit is $7M and change)

OPTIONS:
Dynamically Evolving League is turned OFF. Any expansion, changes to DFA length, et cetera will be decided by a vote by team owners. (Let's say 2/3rds to pass or something.)

The All-Star Game is ALWAYS held on July 4th because this is AMERICA GODDAMMIT.

Playoffs: Alright, here's where it can get dicey. I have this set, at the moment to "Division winners and Wildcard(s) qualify)." That means that (I believe) FOUR teams qualify for the playoffs each year, two division winners, and then the teams with the next two best records. I like some variety, but if people wanna go division winners only, i'm flexible. Also, the series go 7-7-7, not 5-7-7 as currently used in the MLB.

LEAGUE STRATEGY AND EQUIVALENCIES: I don't know about you all, but I loathe the age of "Oh no 100 pitches!" pitching. I'm not saying I yearn for the days of pitchers who'd throw 550 innings in a season, I just wish guys were a little more durable. In light of that fact, under "General Strategic Tendencies", I have set "Use of Relievers/Closers" to "Often" from "Very Often", and bumped Pitcher Stamina up to "Normal" from "Low". I have also upped Bunting and Hit & Run to "Normal" from "Low". Everything else I left at the modern-day equivalent.

I have added AAA, AA, A, Short-Season A, and Rookie League minor leagues, as well as College and HS leagues.

I'm tempted to turn Trading Difficulty up to "Hard", but since we're largely noobs here, i'll leave it on "Normal" unless I see evidence of people abusing the AI. Ratings are all from 1-20.

So, before I sim a year of this (since I don't really want to sit through trying to co-ordinate a initial-year fantasy draft, and I doubt you all do either), does everybody find this all acceptable? If you have any protests, speak them now or hold your peace.

As far as League Rules go for us, I've done a little research, so see the post below.

A. The League
(a) The GWJBL is a fictional Out of the Park Baseball League that begins in 2010 and became user-controlled in 2011.

B. Office of the Commissioner
(a) The League Management reserves the right to modify, alter, or add rules at the discretion of the Commissioner. (b) The Commissioners may (frequently) choose to bring these matters up for debate or vote with team owners, however, such action in no way waives the Commissioner's right to make a unilateral decision in the best interests of the league. (This is to generally simplify and streamline these first years in case there are major game-breaking issues.)

C. Responsibilities as a Owner
(a) All owners are responsible for maintaining their teams at all times and behaving in a way that is beneficial to the league as a whole. (b) Prohibited behaviors/activities include (but are not limited to): cheating of any type, collusion with other owners, simming ahead, abusive behavior / slander against other owners or the league, generally acting like a dick (as determined by a majority of fellow owners/the commissioner), or utilizing unauthorized or confidential information as an advantage. (c) Additionally, owners must always act in the best interests of their team (for example, intentionally "tanking" a season is prohibited). (d) If at any time, league management determines that a particular user has failed to meet the obligations and responsibilities of being an owner, management reserves the right to fine or remove the owner without warning, depending on the nature of the offense.

D. Code of Conduct
Owners shall refrain from conduct unbecoming of a team manager. Flaming, baiting or any actions unbecoming of a team manager (See section C. (a) for more information) shall result in a fine by the commissioner. Just seriously, really, don't be a dick. Actions in violation of the CoC may be penalized. Fines shall be $500,000 for the first and second infractions. The third infraction shall result in a one week suspension from the league, plus a $1,000,000 fine. All subsequent infractions shall result in either the removal of the manager or the forfeiting of draft picks, at the commissioners discretion. The owner will be informed of the decision, but the rest of the league shall not be made aware if an owner is suspended or fined.

E. Sim Schedule
(a) Regular season sims are scheduled for every Monday and Friday, with certain exceptions due to holidays and special league events (such as the All-Star break). (b) Exports are due by 11 pm EST the day of the sim (give or take 30 minutes). (c) The offseason schedule will be posted at the start of the offseason.

II. Player Contracts

A. Free Agents
(a) In the offseason free agent period, free agents may be signed by owners by making offers in OOTP and uploading them via FTP or by sending offers via PM to the commissioner. (b) In season will work exactly the same as offseason.(c) Teams may not sign free agents once the season ends until the free agent filing date has occurred. (d) Total contract bonuses may not exceed the highest annual value of a contract.

B. Re-Signing
(a) Players who will be free agents at the conclusion of the year may be re-signed throughout the season. (b) Offers should be made within the game and uploaded with your export

C. Arbitration
(a) This league uses the arbitration setting within game. (b) To avoid paying arbitration rates, players may be released before the season is turned over.

III. Player Trades

A. General Limitations on Trades
(a) Trades which are deemed significantly unbalanced, in violation of the league rules, or would damage the integrity of the league can be voided at the Commissioner's discretion. (b) Trades cannot be made after the trade deadline unless all players involved with the deal are passed through waivers. (c) Players signed as free agents cannot be dealt until June 1st of the following season.

B. Trading After the Deadline
(a) Teams must request revocable waivers on any players with service time before they are dealt. (b) If unclaimed, players may be dealt to any team. (d) If claimed, players may only be dealt to the team with the winning claim. (e) Minor league players without any major league service time during the current season do not need to be placed through waivers in order to be traded.

C. Trade Guidelines: Trades must be comprised of one or more of the following: Players, Draft Picks, or Cash. One of each must go each way. Teams may not trade more cash than the total value of the contract(s).

IV. The First-Year Player Draft

A. The Amateur Draft
The amateur draft will be held each offseason on a date to be determined.

B. Trades involving Draft Picks
Teams should assume a maximum of ten rounds in each draft when dealing picks. Teams may aquire more than 2 picks in the First and Second round. Third Round and beyond have no limits.

VI. Finances

A. Media Contracts

All GWJL teams have a set media contract.

B. Teams shall share 20% of all income, to be evenly distrubuted between all teams at the start of each season.

Thoughts, quibbles? This is largely cribbed from another site, but I think it's largely fair, and it hasn't even gotten into Waivers and DFA's (Designated for Assignment), which we'll get to eventually once everyone gets used to it? Seem fair? I'm pretty much open to anything, so feel free to shoot your suggestions (for instance, in the off-chance anyone thinks i'm going to power-trip, many leagues have Co-Commish's. Anyone else think it'd be a good idea?)

Can we consider changing the rating from 1-20 to 20-80? I undersand as the range is larger the number is more accurate, which makes for easier scouting.

Also considering we'll only have ~10 human managers (if that,) do we really want to create a league with 28 teams, 1200 players (plus minor leaguers) to keep track of, instead of say, 10 or 15 team league and start out slow. We can always expand in the future.

The current league setup mimics the modern MLB structure which has its merit for sure (comparable stats, comparable finance for reference.) I just want to toss out the idea of keeping it simple. I know I tend to get frustrated when I play solo when I'm overwhelmed.

B. Trades involving Draft Picks
Teams should assume a maximum of ten rounds in each draft when dealing picks. Teams may aquire NO more than 2 picks in the First and Second round. Third Round and beyond have no limits.

FTFY.

I'm okay with less teams. Not sure how I feel about changing the ratings range. I like the idea of having SP last longer.

PS - I want Baltimore.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

So, before I sim a year of this (since I don't really want to sit through trying to co-ordinate a initial-year fantasy draft, and I doubt you all do either), does everybody find this all acceptable? If you have any protests, speak them now or hold your peace.

True, but I don't believe you need to sim a year, I think you can choose to have teams pre-filled when the season starts. That's what you're talking about, right?

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

Hi
I am DONAN's brother and am ready to "PLAY BALL." Have had to endure Mariners last few years (still a fan, though frustated) and feel OOTP is a great alternative. By managing a team may develope an appreciation for management. lol